Obama Wins Re-election, Romney Takes County

By Chanin Rotz-Mountz

NEWS EDITOR

First-time voter Jordan Bohrer, 21, left, gets an “I Voted Today” sticker from Charlene Gordon, judge of elections, right, after casting her vote in the presidential election Tuesday morning at the firehall in McConnellsburg. As Tuesday’s presidential election closed and unofficial results continued to stream in across the nation, U.S. President Barack Obama secured himself a second term of office after having clinched the mandatory 270 electoral votes by 11:30 p.m.

Media outlets projected that Obama beat former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney after winning over registered voters in Ohio. In addition, Romney’s lastminute efforts to grab the midwestern states failed, and Obama went on to pick up numerous swing states including New Hampshire, Michigan, New Mexico, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Here in Fulton County, however, registered voters remained fairly true to their party allegiance allowing Romney to come out on top by a margin of three to one.

Unofficial election results indicate a total of 66.51 percent of Fulton County’s registered voters turned out at the polls on November 6. Of that percentage, 2,498 Republicans and 583 Democrats cast straight party tickets.

Romney garnered 77 percent of the votes cast here with 4,780 votes in comparison to President Obama’s 1,297 votes. Former governor of New Mexico and Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson finished out the day here with 50 votes, and Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stine had a mere 21 votes.

United States Senator Bob Casey Jr. was projected the apparent victor against Republican challenger Tom Smith, according to early reports from the Associated Press. The victory will send the 52-year-old Casey back to the Senate for an additional six-year term.

Former Lackawanna County deputy prosecutor Kathleen Kane nabbed the position of state attorney general on Tuesday easily beating out Republican rival and Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed. Kane jumped out to an early lead after the polls closed at 8 p.m. and with 85 percent of district’s reporting had received 58.5 percent of the overall votes cast.

Meanwhile with 89 percent of the precincts reporting, Democrat Eugene A. DePasquale seems to have secured himself the position of state auditor general. DePasquale reportedly showed sizeable margins of victory in both Philadelphia and Allegheny County. In Fulton County, the new auditor general did not fair as well in the election results securing only 20.67 percent of the votes or 1,218. Republican John Maher took top honors here with 4,330 votes, and Libertarian Party nominee Betsy Summers had 341 votes.

Democratic incumbent Robert McCord was also reelected to office on Tuesday securing a second term of office as state treasurer. McCord beat out Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan (R) as well as Libertarian Party candidate Patricia M. Fryman.

Unofficial votes in Fulton County show Vaughan tallied 4,183 votes, and McCord and Fryman had 1,455 and 266 votes respectively.

Congressman Bill Shuster (R) of the Ninth Congressional District received a nod of approval from area voters after having campaigned against Democratic challenger Karen Ramsburg. Ramsburg appeared on the November 6 ballot after running an Independent write-in campaign in the spring and securing the Democratic Party nomination.

Shuster garnered 72 percent of the votes cast here with 4,369 votes to Ramsburg’s 1,684 votes. Ramsburg congratulated Shuster on his victory as well as for the gracious and honest campaign he conducted.

“I wish him success as he seeks a better deal for the people of Pennsylvania,” Ramsburg said in her concession speech that also urged the congressman to recognize the difference between free market and corporate rule.

State Representative Dick L. Hess ran in an uncontested race on both tickets. He secured 5,881 votes from Fulton County voters.

Results recorded Tuesday evening by the Board of Elections consisting of commissioners Rodney McCray, Craig Cutchall and Irvin Dasher are unofficial. The board is expected to reconvene Friday to canvass the votes.

Outstanding absentee ballots as well as military absentees and provisional ballots have yet to be counted.